Wednesday, October 14, 2015

HOPE in King David’s confession…

Yesterday I confessed how poor
choices led to my Spiritual slump and concluded my post saying:

This
January I will be saved for seven years, up until this past month I had never
experienced a Spiritual slump, as I grew in my faith and fell deeper in love
with Jesus I thought it would never happen. I was wrong and I think I
understand humility better now than I ever could before. Why wouldn’t I have a
Spiritual slump, even King David chose the pleasures in front of Him over God
and he was a man after God’s own heart.

Today we are going to take a deeper look at David’s poor trade of pleasure over God’s calling for his life. Pastor of Life.Church Craig Groeschel writes, “No one would’ve predicted the Goliath killer would end up so far from God that he’d shrink his royal duties, have an affair with a married woman, and have his lover’s husband killed. Sadly, it’s surprisingly easy to lose our enthusiasm. All you really have to do - is forget where it comes from. Forgetting God is easy, but it has the saddest consequences. Today, choose to focus on Him so you don’t forget how exciting it is to run toward His calling.” You can find the whole sordid tale of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.

David didn’t immediately recognize the error of his ways and repent, he was like most all of us are stubborn and reluctant until a trusted advisor, confidant and friend went to David and spoke hard truths to him. David’s eventual confession and groans of repentance are written as Psalm 51. As I was studying Psalm 51 I realized one of my favorite worship leaders, Travis Cottrell (he just follows Beth Moore herself around the country) also sings the hymn, “Just as I am” which was written as a reflection of Psalm 51 and, of course, I share the beautiful cover below.

God knew I needed to hear the messages from yesterday more than once which is why He had me read these words today in the MSG version of Psalm 51, “Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.” Yesterday one of my major revelations was that God did not only breathe life into us He is also the breath of life! The MSG version also states, “I learned God worship when my pride was shattered.” These past few weeks and having to confess my sloth and spiritual slump to my dearest friends was the most humbling experience of my life but I feel refreshed, renewed and ready to worship God by living as His servant and obeying His call on my life.

Even at my worst over the last 6.5 years of my faith journey I have never lost HOPE, I have failed and grieved God, I have been hurt and sinned gravely but my HOPE has always been left standing. I believe the only reason that is possible is because I embrace confession. I know that when my fleshly instincts have me isolating what God needs me to do is reach out for help. I know that no matter how deep my pit may be that God’s light shines brightly as my beacon of HOPE, lighting my path to confession and repentance. The Bible is many things but one of the most powerful aspects is that it is a treasure map leading us to HOPE by giving us a guide for how to do life and gives us people\characters to relate to that both fail and succeed.

In my quest to overcome addictions God placed two Spirit driven recovery programs in my path: Celebrate Recovery (CR) and Re:Generation. Victory over addictions cannot happen unless you confess and repent. Principle four of eight in CR states, “Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God and to someone I trust. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart.’ Matthew 5:8.” Re:Gen’s step 5 states, “We confess to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of ours sins.” Re:Gen’s foundation 4 is Psalm 51:6, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

Is there something you are keeping to yourself but you can feel the Spirit moving you to confess? Are you hiding out or behind a mask? Are you afraid no one will understand? Have you been hurt before by confessing to mere humans? Bethany Boring a #P31OBS sister shared this yesterday, “Stop and breathe in the breath of God! No matter where you are or what the circumstances are. See God in the stillness and chaos of life.” Maybe you still doubt; she is human too after all but look what was waiting for me as I studied our Psalm today, again from the MSG version, “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” Oh, I should probably tell you she was speaking of Genesis when she asked us to stop and take God’s breath in! Will you join me in finding and strengthening your HOPE today by confessing to God and someone else exactly what is going on with you?